{"id":7716,"date":"2017-12-15T21:05:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T21:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7716"},"modified":"2017-12-15T21:05:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T21:05:14","slug":"credit-agency-warns-cities-to-prepare-for-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7716","title":{"rendered":"Credit Agency Warns Cities to Prepare for Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Many<\/a>

Many scientists believe the heavy floods that accompanied Hurricane Harvey last summer were caused, in part, by climate change. Photo: Platt\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Municipal officials could be forced to deal with climate change sooner rather than later, or have their bond ratings downgraded.<\/p>\n

Moody\u2019s Investor Services, a bond rating agency, says one element of how it now will determine a city\u2019s credit rating in Texas and across the country will be to\u00a0assess their risk from climate change<\/a>, and whether they are preparing to deal with the problem.<\/p>\n

Ratings from Moody\u2019s help determine interest rates on bonds issued by cities to fund roads, buildings and other civic projects.<\/p>\n

Shana Udvardy, a Climate Preparedness Specialist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says\u00a0coastal cities will have to make some tough decisions as sea levels rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities can defend against the sea, they can also accommodate and learn to live with the water, and then the harder choice is thinking about having neighborhoods or communities retreat from areas that are too hard to live in anymore,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Moody\u2019s identifies Texas, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana as the states most at risk for damage from climate change, although almost every state will be affected. The agency says it will assess both a city\u2019s risk from climate trends, a shift over several decades, and climate shock from extreme weather events such as natural disasters, floods and droughts.<\/p>\n

Udvardy says the Texas coast already is seeing both short- and long-term risks from rising seas.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, the Bolivar Peninsula is seeing 11 percent of their useful land being flooded by sea-level rise 26 times per year,\u201d she adds. \u201cThis number jumps to 26 communities in the \u2018high scenario\u2019 in 2100.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says while some politicians deny that the results of climate change are human-caused, the threat of a bad bond rating will likely make it more difficult for them to disregard the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t ignore the floodwaters lapping at your house or your doorstep,\u201d states Udvardy. \u201cSo, it doesn\u2019t matter necessarily whether those political leaders are saying how it is caused. As long as they are acting to put protective measures in, they\u2019ll be rewarded by protecting their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good bond ratings are important because when financing large municipal projects, even a small change can cost a city\u2019s residents millions of dollars on their annual tax bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0Municipal officials could be forced to deal with climate change sooner rather than later, or have their bond ratings downgraded. Moody\u2019s Investor Services, a bond rating agency, says one element of how it now will determine a city\u2019s credit rating in Texas and across the country will be to\u00a0assess their risk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7718,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions\/7718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}